Minuteman volunteers vow to keep border secure

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HACHITA, N.M. -- Known as "J-Man," the 25-year-old college student moves silently along a rock-strewn ridge overlooking the Playas Valley here, looking for aliens and drug smugglers crossing the rugged high desert into the United States from Mexico.

On top of a large lava outcropping known as the Towers, he is working what is called a "detached post" with two other Minuteman Civil Defense Corps volunteers, "Shorty" and "Grizzly," who man similar vantage points on opposite sides of the expansive ridge.

J-Man reports his position by walkie-talkie to his team leader, "White Shadow," a 76-year-old retired California man stationed atop the ridge, and returns to his binoculars trained on the valley stretched below as far as the eye can see.

Five miles south of the Towers is Chalk Hill, a huge chunk of limestone jutting more than 300 feet above the dry desert soil. Atop that mound is John Hendricks, 48, of Tampa, Fla., another Minuteman volunteer who serves as the leader of Team 2. He also keeps track of his team members, scattered around the hill at detached posts, by walkie-talkie.

Team 2 has a commanding view of both the Playas Valley and the adjacent Animus Canyon, where illegal aliens and drug smugglers scurry every day to make connections on nearby Highway 9, an easy ride to Interstate 10 and major cities both east and west.

J-Man and the two team leaders reflect the diversity of the 160 Minuteman volunteers who signed up to stand watches along the isolated and often-desolate New Mexico border. They came from throughout the United States, from Washington state and California to Alabama and Florida.

More than 200 illegal aliens are caught every day by the U.S. Border Patrol along this desolate area of the New Mexico border, although an estimated 600 or more daily make their way to Highway 9 and other pickup spots.

Arizona has become the focal point of a law-enforcement initiative by the Border Patrol, forcing more and more illegal aliens -- and drug smugglers -- to New Mexico.

The agency recently assigned agents out of El Paso to augment the New Mexico effort, but it is a daunting challenge.

"I came out here to help protect my country," said the University of New Mexico student, who asked not to be identified. "A country without a secure border is a country that cannot guarantee its security.